Here's the basics so far, I'll be taking this diesel 2.2 Liter engine from a 1982 Datsun 720:







And will put it in a 1984 4x4 Nissan that I bought with a blown head gasket:





More details and photos will come once the tow bar I ordered over the weekend arrives and when I'll finally be able to bring the 4x4 home. BTW, the Datsun 720 is being parted out if you happen to need anything.
The tough parts of the swap will be a little electrical work to blend the diesel harness into the gasser's, building a custom oil pan to clear the front diff and other components, and tearing apart the SD22's transmission case and swapping in the 1984 4x4 internals so that everything bolts up nicely.

That's it for now.

David

David,
This is going to be an interesting one. I am excited to see the progress!! At what point is the turbo going on there?

-Jeremy

I'm still waiting to pick the thing up, the tow bar I ordered is coming slowly. I can almost guarantee a turbo to be installed, not sure when, I never was able to actually drive the Datsun with the diesel installed, but I've heard that they're slow and will cause you to learn patience. If and when I get tired of the low highway speeds and slow acceleration, the turbo will get strapped on.

David

David,
I have never driven a fast diesel vehicle, but people swear they exist. The last one that I drove was a new VW beetle with a turbo diesel engine. It was slow as ever, but it felt like it could probably pull down a house with ease. Diesels are cool for sure. Your truck could be great inspiration for a diesel project of my own.
-Jeremy

I finally got the 4x4 Nissan home after many many ordeals and a fresh case of poison ivy. I had gigantic bees stalk me around, had to crawl under the thing to pull the driveshaft since it was stuck in 4WD with three active wasp nests on the truck, partially broke the bumper on the uhaul dolly, and I could go on. Got the thing home, pulled the radiator for a guy that wanted it, and powerwashed it to remove any sort of bug, snake or whatever may have been in there. I swear I hope this diesel project is worth it after just the long process of getting it home. Anyways, I may start pulling the engine tomorrow, finally.

One good thing is that I got experienced with the ways of the metal scrapyard, man that place is crazy. I drove the rusty datsun on the highway probably 15 miles away from my house only to find the metal scrapyard shut down for the 4th of July week. Luckily someone told me of another yard a few more miles away. After the long wait, it was worth it to see the Datsun go to the crusher. A big ass crane with a claw just gripped the thing by the top of the cab, breaking the windshield, shook off the tires with lug nuts removed for me to take home, and the thing just took off in the air and flew into the hopper. Man I wish I had a camera for that.

Got the engine out last night, will start on adapting the oil pan and hopefully will start on adapting the transmission this weekend. You can see the oil pan pokes out underneath the intake manifold in order to clear the front differential. The diesel pan is a little weird too, it has two drain bolts on the pan, one in the front, and one on the back. There's a hump in the middle of the pan for clearing a cross member (I guess), I didn't notice the oil bolts when pulling the engine. I hope it will be as simple as cutting the flared part off the Z24 gas engine's pan, and just fitting it in place on the SD22 diesel pan. I need to do a test fit of the SD22 with the oil pan removed first to make sure that it will mount in the same location, if it has to move forward or backward to fit, I'll have to take that in consideration before welding the pan back together.

I don't know what was wrong with the Z24 engine, the guy I bought the truck from was selling it for his son, and he wasn't mechanically inclined, but said that he thought the engine had blown its head gasket. The radiator was full and clear of oil when I took out the radiator, but when I drained the oil out of the z24, it was very thin and had a very strong gas smell to it. It actually overflowed my oil pan bucket mid-pour, and I had to stop it and get another so I wouldn't make a huge mess. Anyone have thoughts on the gas in oil pan situation? I'm not going to use this engine, but if its not a blown head gasket, it may be easier to sell.

Started to work on getting the SD22 in the 4x4. I test fitted the engine to see where the mounts would end up, and I'm just about done with the oil pan. I hope to start tearing apart transmissions pretty soon to start installing the 4x4 guts into the sd22 diesel transmission. Here are some pics:

The pan was filled with gas when I drained the oil, and I found these parts inside the pan:


A hard surface to work on is so overrated


Pretty close!


Close on the other side.


Pans




Point of no return.




Still honing my welding skills




That's it for now.

David

David,
It looks like it is coming along great. I would have to assume that the fuel pump exploded and filled the engine with gas. That would certainly prevent it from running, and I bet that engine is clean inside now
-Jeremy

I was going to say.. gas in the pan, and that spring all point to the pump for sure.

Looks Great!

It must have been the fuel pump then. The timing seems to have jumped as well since valves are hitting pistons when I rotate the crankshaft. I'll tear the whole thing down eventually to see if there's any non-damaged parts I can sell. The oil pan isn't quite done yet, I should have test fitted the pan before finishing it up because the main bearing caps and the crankshaft are lower in the diesel engine than in the gasoline engine. I need another 1-1.5" depth at the front of the pan in order to clear everything. So it looks like I'll be back at work with the sawzall and the welder for another round this week, I don't think it will take too long.

David

The pan and oil pickup is done, so now I moved to the transmission gut swap.
Here's the pickup, I did go back and add a brace after this pic:



After some powerwashing, SD22 transmission is on the right, the 4x4 on the left:



4x4 on the left, SD22 on right:






Free silver paint? This oil doesen't look too good coming out of the SD22, good thing I won't be using these parts again:



Countershaft bearing damage:



This transmission was ridiculously easy to take apart, I feel silly now about asking how hard it would be to do:





A little chewed:



This can't be good either:









Some bonus parts!



The cleaned 4x4 guts hanging out to dry, I had to powerwash after finding some rust that I had to scrape and sand smooth, the assembly wouldn't turn. This transmission has indeed been rebuilt before as the seller told me, it looks like a new front plate and input shaft, plus newer bearings:





You can see the rusty parts, I guess the oil didn't cover these parts while the truck sat for a few years:



More rust, I blew everything dry and splashed on a coat of PB blaster to keep it lubed and wrapped it in a garbage bag to keep it clean before reassembly:

Tranny is assembled, engine and transmission are in the truck. I just need to finish up the driver side mount, and readjust the passenger side mount just a little. Next steps will be to wire and plumb everything up, change out the tank and drain any gas out of the fuel lines, and then mount up the AC compressor and power steering pump to the diesel engine.










Driver side mount almost finished:



Passenger side mount, I just need to shift the lower mount to center the middle bolt a little better:



The pan is close, but this shot is without the driver side mount installed, with the mount it looks like it will do just fine:






Thats it for now, its getting closer to running all the time.

David,
That is awesome, I am glad to see progress is being made. I am anxious to see how a diesel compares to the 4G63 truck in the "fun" category.
Are you keeping a tab of total cost involved? That would be fun to see!

-Jeremy

The most fun I'll probably have out of this truck will be from seeing the savings in fuel costs, but it will be nice to have a longer bed for the four wheeler, sunroof, 4x4, AC and PS. I'm betting on this thing being a dog until I can mount the turbo which is going to be hard to do since the AC compressor will be in the way a little. I haven't kept a spreadsheet or anything on what I've spent, but I have a general idea, I guess I should try to organize one to see where I come out. I did finish the engine mounts, I even pumped urethane around the rubber because they were deteriorating, now I'm moving to changing out the tank and begin making brackets for the AC and PS components.

The urethane came in a tube made by 3M and called Windo Weld, some DSM folks use this to firm up the stock mounts, the stuff is usually used to seal new windshields. For $15 a tube, it was better than paying $75 each for new mounts.

Ok, new update. After wrestling with making and lining up brackets for pulleys and such over the past week or two, pictures of how the power steering and AC compressor are mounted are below. I ended up modifying one of the tensioner pulleys from the Z24 engine and was able to mount it below the power steering pump so I'll be able to take the slack out of the belts. The PS pump by far was the easiest to mount. I had a piece of angle iron laying around, and it all fell into place very easily. I ended up using a piece of aluminum I also had laying around because the bolts just so happened to line up very nicely with two unused threads down on the SD22. The AC compressor was a different story as you can see the crazy bracket I had to make. Its a pretty sturdy piece even though it may look a little weird. I did want to mount it as a part of the alternator bracket, but I figured I still needed to be able to move the alternator as a separate piece in order to provide enough tension for its own belt. I'm heading to the auto store tomorrow to find a belt long enough to work and I should finally be done with this stage. I also swapped out the gas tank for the diesel tank, and there's no obvious differences on the outside of the tanks between the two, but I posted pics anyways (BTW, the pvc pipe filler neck came with the 1982 720). The mounts were also finished, I used the urethane inside the mount which may or may not help, the starter fits very snugly along the driver side mount to say the least.